Each year, billions of dollars are spent on cosmetically-related products and services. Many of these products, for example, razors, tweezers, shampoos, conditioners, etc., are applied and used by the purchaser in the privacy of their home. However, one aspect of personal grooming—head-hair growth—cannot be easily and properly dealt with without help.
To maintain a well-groomed appearance, people usually present themselves to salons and other hair-cutting businesses. In order for the hair-cutting professional to work with the hair in the best condition, the person's hair should be washed and free of dirt, oils, and products. For that reason, all hair salons have sinks for cleaning the client's hair prior to cutting or other treatments, e.g., dyeing. Most known sinks generally used for washing hair in these salons are attached to and extend from a wall. To wash a person's hair, the person is placed in a chair with an angled back, which allows the person to place the back of his or her head/neck area on a front/lip portion of the sink. Unfortunately, due to the shallow bowl of standard sinks, those with longer hair find that their hair simply lies at the bottom of sink bowl and collects around and covers the drain area.
The shape/dimensions of these presently known sinks make it impossible or very difficult to extend and properly clean longer hair. Most known sinks provide no option for the operator, usually an employee at a hair salon, for example, other than leaving the person's hair at the bottom of the sinks causing the hair to be bunched together in order to be washed. As the hair is often in contact with the draining area at the lower portion of the sink during and after the cleaning process, the recently cleaned hair may become compromised by any debris or dirt that was previously removed and has accumulated. Further, when the hair accumulates at the draining area of the sink it often causes a build-up of water.
Some prior-art sinks have attempted to incorporate deeper openings to accommodate longer hair. As these known sinks are fixedly connected to and supported by wall, many operators find it difficult, if not impossible, to reach down and wash the person's hair effectively and efficiently. Some known systems that allow a person's hair to extend include using a funnel-type apparatus that extends from the head/neck area of the person down to the standard-sized sink opening. These apparatuses generally extend from a distance away from the standard-sized sink to accomplish the hair extension. These systems used for washing a person with longer hair, however, disadvantageously take up a significant amount of space, as the person must be a distance away from the sink. Those apparatuses used in connection with sinks also are generally cumbersome and require storage when not washing a person with longer hair. Moreover, these apparatuses generally require use in combination with a separate and distinct sink. In addition, many of these known hair washing apparatuses further require the person's hair to be pulled through an aperture in the funnel-type apparatus thereby securing the apparatus to the top of the user's head, instead of the standard head/neck area resting on a portion of the sink. Those aforementioned systems are undesirable and uncomfortable for the person having their hair washed as he or she is supporting the weight of the funnel-type apparatus. Further, these systems are also undesirable as the aperture that fits on the person's head is susceptible to leaking when confronted with water around the edges of the aperture.
Some known sinks try to circumvent these issues by integrating an automated hair washing system for washing a person's hair. These known systems incorporate knobs, pulleys, and other devices for holding and directing the person's hair. These systems, however, are generally not effective or applicable for persons with long hair and often cost a significant amount of money to purchase and/or to maintain. Moreover, these automated systems require more time to set up the person having his or her hair washed, which is cost and time intensive. These systems also often cause discomfort to the person being washed as those aforementioned devices for holding and directing the person's hair also tug and pull on it.
Furthermore, with most known sinks being attached to a wall of a building, the operator can generally only access the hair from two sides of the sink body in order to clean and wash the hair. For those known sinks that have a deeper opening than most standard-sized sinks, it is difficult, if not impossible, for the operator to thoroughly access and clean a person with long hair without bending or twisting the operator's body in uncomfortable positions. This is often undesirable for many operators.
It is also generally known when washing a person's hair that hair follicles sometimes become dislodged from their roots, subsequently becoming tangled or lodged in the drain area of a sink. For businesses that intake a medium to high volume of clients, a hair washing sink that provides a client with quick, efficient, and quality cleaning is desired. It is further desired to have a hair washing sink that is relatively easy to maintain and provides quick clean-up resulting from any debris generated from the hair washing process. As most of those known sinks have the drain located above the floor of a building structure, the operator is often required to physically remove any debris or in some cases, dislodge hair follicles from the drain. This is often done by using the operator's hands, or a towel or cloth, which is not desired and in some cases, not sanitary. Those known sinks for washing hair generally do not provide an effective and efficient way to clean the area where any debris or residue might build up by the drain, or an associated drain screen. As discussed, those known sinks for washing hair are generally attached to the side wall of a building and the draining area is above the ground surface of the building. As such, an operator generally cannot effectively use traditional cleaning tools, such as a mop or broom, to remove any dislodged hair or other debris generated from the cleaning process.
In addition, many of those known systems for washing hair often require the user, or the chair in which the user is sitting, to be adjusted to the appropriate height of the sink. Most known sinks do not have the ability to adjust themselves to the user without incorporating a separate device independent of the sink structure. This is often desirable for situations where the functional limitations of bending the chair, or user, have been reached. Again, as those known sinks generally extend from the side wall of the building from which they are attached, the operator is limited to placing the sinks along the side wall. This limits the sink placement locations for the operator in situations where the operator desires to have the side walls occupied by other objects, such as furniture and salon equipment, for example, or to have the side walls unobstructed entirely.
Therefore, a need exists to overcome the problems with the prior art as discussed above.